Home-page blues
Posted by apsley88 in Yellow Paper on 12 October, 2012 - 06:27
I view it, in some ways, as entirely arbitrary whether one says, say, Ralph Vaughan Williams is or was a composer of 9 symphonies, etc.
However, in the spirit of celebrating Russ as a person, even if his physical body died, I would prefer to read on the home-page :
Russell Hoban (1925-2011) is an American writer [...]
Richard Cooper replied on 13 October, 2012 - 09:14:
I know what you mean but I think it would read oddly... there's no getting away from the fact that Russ is no longer with us (bodily anyway).
apsley88 replied on 16 October, 2012 - 23:10:
No, Russ is no longer with us as a physical human being. But he remains a writer until such time as my thesis about him gets proved, and it's established that a black guy in Brixton ghost-wrote everything. Shakespeare is a writer - to say Shakespeare was a writer implies that he stopped writing...
Roland replied on 31 October, 2012 - 19:40:
Don't you think 'is' definitely implies that he's alive? It's different with Shakespeare ... nobody much is uncertain about his status ...
katelaity replied on 6 November, 2012 - 16:10:
How about removing the verb?
Russell Hoban (1925-2011)
American writer...
apsley88 replied on 9 November, 2012 - 12:50:
How would anyone think Russ alive with the dates 1925 to 2011 above... ?